Lesson video

Hello there, scholars of religion.

My name is Ms. Marks, I'm going to be your religious education teacher today and today we're going to be learning about Tawhid and the idea of there being one God within Islam and what the oneness of God might mean and we're going to get quite philosophical and theological when we're doing this.

So when you're ready, let's go.

So by the end of today's lesson, you will be able to explain what a belief in Tawhid is and why this is important for Muslims. So first of all, let's start with our key terms. Begets, bringing a child into existence through reproduction.

Monotheistic, a belief in and worship of only one God.

And in Islam, Allah.

Shirk, worshipping anything other than Allah considered to be the worst sin in Islam.

And Tawhid, a belief in Allah's oneness and unity.

So look out for those in today's lesson.

So today's lesson's going to have two sections as we learn about Tawhid.

Firstly, Tawhid.

Secondly, the importance and influence of Tawhid for Muslims. So let's start with our first section then, Tawhid.

How many phrases can you think of in the English language which use the term one? Pause the video and have a go.

You can write them down or think of them in your head.

How many different phrases and words and terms do we have which use that word one? Pause the video and off you go.

I wonder if you've got the same ones as me.

"The one and only." "I've found the one." "I feel it one again." "One of a kind." "One in a million." "The number one." Because the term one can mean so many different things for us, can't it? What kind of images do these phrases and the ones that you came up with generate for us? Pause the video and have a think about that.

The term one can mean so much more than just a number one.

We can use it to mean something great, something unique, something complete, something total.

So when in Islam, we talk about there being one God or that God is one, then it means more than just like the number one.

It can mean so much more than that, can't it? Let's understand how.

So the term Tawhid comes from Arabic and it has the root letters wa, ha, and da, and this forms the root of many words related to one and oneness.

So here we got Tawhid, you can see it here.

And actually the number one in Arabic is wahid.

And so we can see that they have similar roots there.

And this is the way Arabic works.

You can see the root letters can help you understand more what words might mean.

And so we know that Tawhid has something to do with the oneness of God or there being one God.

One of the 99 names of Allah is also Al-Wahid, the absolute One.

So the kind of complete total absolute One.

So Tawhid therefore is a belief in the oneness and uniqueness of God.

So not only is there like only one God, there's no other God, but also that God is completely unique and completely total.

This belief in Tawhid means that Islam is a monotheistic religion.

And this term monotheistic comes from Greek.

So we come from Arabic to Greek now.

Monotheistic, so mono coming from monos meaning single.

So you might know monologue when only one person's speaking, a monorail, a train with only one track on it.

Theistic comes from the term theos meaning God or a belief in God or gods.

So if someone's a theist, they believe in God.

If someone studies theology like I did, then I studied ideas about God.

So we can see from this that a monotheist is someone who believes there's only one God.

And Islam is also known as an Abrahamic faith And the word Allah is an Arabic term for God and most Muslims believe this is the same God of Judaism and Christianity, that one God of the Abrahamic faith, which are also monotheistic faiths.

So what beliefs are there connected to this idea of Tawhid the oneness of God in Islam? There is no other thing that compares to God.

It's not like there is one God and something else that's a bit like God.

No, there's nothing that compares to God, completely unique.

God is complete and not made of different parts.

So it's not that there's one bit of God here and one bit of God there and we can understand God is completely separate.

It's one united complete God.

God is all powerful and created the universe.

So this links to the idea that God is total and complete and there's no limit to God.

There's no thing that God can't do that someone else can do.

So God is all powerful.

We can see that through the creation of the universe.

So how then can we as a part of that creation understand this God that's so much bigger and greater than our minds could ever comprehend? Well, we can know more about God through revelations that are given to messengers and prophets.

And God alone is deserving of worship and adoration and nothing else, no one else can be worshipped or put up on that height and that pedestal along with God to be worshipped and adored.

God alone is worthy of that worship because God is complete and total and there's nothing comparable to God.

So let's do a quick check.

Which two statements are correct about the belief of Tawhid? We've got, "Muslims believe Allah is a different God to the Abrahamic God." "Muslims believe there's only one God." "A belief in Tawhid means that Islam is polytheistic." And "A belief in Tawhid means that nothing compares to God." So in there, we've got two correct statements.

You need to find those, pause the video and have a go and we'll see what you've done in a moment.

Well done.

Some tricky points in there, wasn't there? The two correct answers are B and D, which is that "Muslims believe there's only one God.

And a belief in Tawhid means that nothing compares to God." The reason why A is not correct is because Muslims generally believe it is the same as the Abrahamic gods that's in Judaism and Christianity.

And also a belief in Tawhid is monotheistic.

So there's only one God, not polytheistic.

That term means many gods.

Well done.

So this belief in Tawhid is supported by many sources of wisdom and authority in Islam.

So this belief comes from some of these sources as kind of pointers to help Muslims understand God.

Two of these are the Shahadah.

Now this is a declaration of faith in Islam or sometimes it's called a creed and it's what people might say as kind of the most important thing about the belief in Islam and it's actually what people might say when they become Muslim as well.

And it is one of the five pillars.

These are important practises within Islam and it's one of those.

And the Holy Qur'an, which is revealed to the Prophet Muhammad and one bit in particular is super important for helping us understand this idea of Tawhid.

Although it runs throughout the hold of the Qur'an and Muslim would argue one of the Surahs, which is a chapter, is really helpful for us to understand what is meant by saying that "There is only one God and that God is one," and that's Surah 112.

So let's understand these a little bit more then.

So let's think about a source of authority as the Shahadah.

Now the Shahadah is a statement of faith in Islam and it's one of the five pillars.

Sometimes it's called a creed or it's a statement of what Muslims believe.

And it's one of the five pillars which are particularly important in Sunni Islam.

"There is no God but God and Muhammad is the messenger of God," the Shahadah.

So this can be used as a source of authority to say, "Why might a Muslim believe in the idea of Tawhid?" So how can the Shahadah support that belief in Tawhid then? Pause the video and have a think and we'll see what you've done in a moment.

Yeah, well done.

We've got here the idea, there is no God but God.

So there's only one God, there's no other God and nothing like God, but also that that God has sent messages to us and Muhammad is one of those messengers who's been sent a message for us as humans.

We've got "There's no other God but God.

And humans can know about God through the revelations to the Prophet Muhammad." Well done.

Now for Muslim, God does not have a human body.

As humans were created by God.

So God isn't the same as us.

We see that God is very different and separate and not comparable to us.

So God doesn't have a human body like humans do.

The Qur'an was revealed in Arabic.

So that's the language the Qur'an was revealed in.

We've already looked at the word Tawhid is an Arabic word.

So when it is translated into English, choices are made by translators about what words to use.

When we read in the Qur'an, we are reading in English what someone has translated.

So many people choose to read it in Arabic.

So they read the original text and the original language it was revealed in.

So in Arabic, which the Qur'an was revealed in, there's no gender neutral pronoun to use where you could be talking about someone or something without using the name, but still referring to them without indicating something about their gender or by saying that it's a plural.

So in the Qur'an, the term huwa is used as a pronoun and that is then translated quite often as He in English.

So whilst I'm reading in Arabic, I might not think He is male when it's translated into English.

He might make me think of someone being male, having a male body.

And that is what often happens when we're reading different holy texts, for example the Qur'an.

So when translations of the Qur'an use pronouns such as he him, us, and we, it's not actually saying that God has a human body or is a plural, it's just a way of referring to God without saying the word God all of the time without it necessarily mean that God has a body because the belief is that God doesn't have a body and it's just us trying to understand God through reading these different revelations.

This is really important for us when we're thinking about Tawhid because Tawhid means that God is not like a human and doesn't have a human body.

So God cannot be male or female.

So with that in mind, let's look at the source of authority as the Qur'an.

"God bears witness that there is no God but He as do the angels and those endowed with knowledge upholding justice.

There is no God but He, the Mighty, the Wise." So remember what I said here about He not meaning that God is male but it's just a way to refer to God that we can understand.

So this is in Surah 3 of the Qur'an.

So how could this quote support a belief in Tawhid? Pause the video and have a think and we'll see what you come up with in a moment.

Yeah, so this has the idea, there's no other God but God and God is mighty.

That idea of God being all powerful and not limited in any way.

We've got here, "There's no God but He.

God is the mighty and shows that Muslims should only believe in that one God" that has all of the power and is mighty.

So I said there's a really key Surah or section of the Qur'an that we can look at and really try and understand this idea of Tawhid because it kind of unpacks it for us several things about the idea of Tawhid.

And this Surah is quite short, it's only got four ayahs or four lines in it and it goes like this, "In the name of God, the Gracious, the Merciful.

Say, 'He is God, the One, God the Absolute.

He begets not, nor was He begotten and there is none comparable to Him.

'" And this has one of our key terms in there begets.

So how can this Surah really key Surah here support a belief in Tawhid? There's lots in here that you could pick out.

Pause the video and have a think and we'll see what you come up with in a moment.

So yeah, in every line here, we've got something about Tawhid which is why it's such a good Surah for us to use when we're talking about Tawhid and beliefs about God in Islam.

This Surah shows that God is one.

So that's the idea of oneness of God, but also that God is absolute so total, there's nothing like God and there's nothing missing from God.

We have this phrase that, "He begets not, nor was He begotten." So that word, if you remember, beget meaning to reproduce to have children.

So this is saying that there's no humans on earth that have been directly like born or birthed by God and that God wasn't involved in their reproduction in a direct way.

And you might think of how that could relate to other beliefs in other religions you might have studied.

And also this idea that there's nothing comparable to God.

God is like we cannot put anything else up there if we're worshipping or praying to anything else, nothing compares to God.

So all of these things support the idea of Tawhid.

So you can see why it's a really key Surah that could be used.

So Aisha and Jacob are discussing how these sources of authority that we've just looked at can support this belief in Tawhid.

So we've got the idea of Tawhid, the oneness of God and we've got some of our sources here, the Shahadah and the Qur'an, particularly Surah 112.

So how could they support this belief in Tawhid? Let's see what Aisha and Jacob are gonna say.

So Aisha says, "A Muslim might believe in Tawhid because in the Qur'an it says, 'Say, he is God, the one.

' And this will encourage a Muslim to believe in one God rather than lots of other gods." So to be monotheistic and only believe in one God.

Jacob says, "A Muslim might believe in Tawhid because the statement of faith says, 'There's no God but God and Muhammad is the messenger of God.

' Muslims can know about God through the revelations to Muhammad in the Qur'an." So what Aisha and Jacob have done here is used the sources we've looked at to show how they could support a belief in Tawhid.

And well done Aisha there for stating the source as the Qur'an.

So thinking abouts Surah 112 that we looked at a minute ago, what are two beliefs that are shown in Surah 112 to do with Tawhid? Pause the video and have a go and we'll see what you've done in a moment.

Well done, there was lots in there that you could have used, but two ideas are that God didn't reproduce and have children and that there's nothing that compares to God.

So both of these are linked to the idea of Tawhid.

Well done.

So let's do a practise task to see what we've learned then.

Explain two beliefs Muslims have about Tawhid and refer to sacred writings or another source of Muslim belief and teachings in your answer.

So you are going to give two points and for each point, you're going to develop them 'cause when we have an explained question, we need to add to the point with an explanation.

A development could be an example, sometimes with the phrase this means that.

And for one of those, you're going to give a source of Muslim belief and teaching.

And what you're going to do is include the name of the source, where has it come from, and how does it link to the point that you're making.

It could be a quotation, a general belief or a teaching.

So pause the video and off you go and we'll see what you've done in a moment.

Well done.

Some really good thinking there.

So you were asked to explain two beliefs Muslims have about Tawhid.

And you were asked to refer to sacred writings or another source of Muslim belief and teaching in your answer.

And your answer might look something like this.

"One belief about Tawhid that Muslims have is that there is only one God.

This means that there are no other gods and false gods should not be worshipped.

Muslims believe this because it says in the Shahadah, 'There's no God but God.

'" So here I've got the point that there is only one God.

That's a belief connected to Tawhid.

I've then explained it.

This means that there are no other gods.

And then I've given the source and I've said where it comes from.

It's the Shahadah.

There's no God but God.

My second point, "Another belief about Tawhid that Muslims have is that God is complete and has not begotten anyone." So that's the idea of not reproducing.

"This means that God never had separate parts or persons like a child on earth." So again, I've got that phrase, "This means that," indicating that I'm developing and explaining the point that I've given.

Well done.

So onto our second section then.

The importance and influence of Tawhid for Muslims. So belief in Tawhid means that a Muslim will not worship any other gods or associate any other things with Allah, who is unique.

If a Muslim does this, they would be committing the sin of shirk, which we looked at in our key words.

Nadia explains why she doesn't want to commit shirk.

And Nadia says, "A belief in Tawhid means that I don't want to commit the sin of shirk.

God is one and completely unique.

There's nothing else I should worship.

To me, this means no other gods.

I don't want to idolise or worship money either." So it's not only like the idea of different gods, but also not putting anything else up there as important as God with what she's mentioned here to do with money.

Let's do a quick check.

Muslims believe that to worship anything other than Allah is committing the sin of shirk.

Is that true or false? Pause the video and have a go and we'll see what you've done in a moment.

That is true.

But why? Well, it's true because a belief in Tawhid means that Allah is the only God and completely unique.

There's nothing else worthy of worship than Allah.

So sometimes we can look at religious buildings to see the importance of different beliefs that are held in those religions.

And one example of this is mosques and the architecture of mosques can help us to see the importance if the belief in Tawhid.

And I wonder if you can think of why.

Well, aside from the name of God being written there, other things we might have are that there's no images or idols.

So there's no statues that people are worshipping.

There's no images of different gods that people are worshipping.

There's no pictures or anything people might accidentally worship.

We've got the name of God written there and kind of geometric and calligraphy patterns, but there's no image or idol that someone's going to worship.

We've got the name of God written here in Arabic, Allah, and that's going to be a reminder that only God is to be worshipped and that God is one.

Also that dome shape is often used to signify that unity and that completeness of God with the dome that's there.

If you could think of beautiful domes that you've seen on different mosques, you might have seen.

Now the words of the Shahadah, which we saw earlier in the lesson.

"There's no God, but God and Muhammad is the messenger of God" are said many times during a Muslim's life.

I said it's a statement of faith that really sums up everything that's super important in Islam.

The idea that there's only one God and Muhammad is the messenger of God.

And a Muslim will hear this many different times.

For many children born into a Muslim family, they'll be part of the first words they hear as a baby.

And Ahmed's gonna explain how.

Ahmed says, "My family tell me the very first words I heard after I was born was the Shahadah.

From that day on, I've heard the words every day we pray at home and at the mosque.

This helps me to remember my belief in Tawhid that there's no God but God." So from the very moment he was born, this is what he heard about how the world is and who God is.

So how could a belief in Tawhid influence Ahmed? If it's been there from day one for him, how could it shape or change Ahmed's thoughts, beliefs, or actions? Have a think about that and we'll come back to it in a second.

Well, a belief in Tawhid can influence a Muslim's life in many ways.

And we can look to some key Muslim practises to understand how.

So when we look at some of the practises that Muslims do, we can see the beliefs that inform them how they are connected and they are influenced by these different beliefs.

Well, here I've got four other important practises that Muslims do and how can we relate those to a belief in Tawhid and the oneness of God.

Well, with daily prayers, a Muslim is praying to only one God and only worshipping and adoring that one God, no other gods.

So therefore a belief in Tawhid can be seen through daily prayers.

Fasting, and here, we've got an image of Ramadan Kareem.

So fasting during the month of Ramadan.

While fasting reminds a Muslim that all provision comes from God and everything we have comes from God.

And to be thankful to God for that and that God's power has created everything that we have on earth anyway, including all of the food and everything that we might drink.

And fasting can be a real reminder for Muslims of that too, of that oneness of God.

A charity tax that's paid like Nadia said earlier in the lesson, that she doesn't want to idolise money and wealth and sort of chase that more than she does in believing in God.

And so in Islam, we have a charity tax that's paid so that you are donating some of that money away so you're not gonna end up clinging to it and worshipping it instead of God.

And pilgrimage, which is a site of worship of Allah from the very first humans.

Some Muslims believe from the time of Adam, certainly from the time of Ibrahim.

And so that site has been a place where people have worshipped the one God for a very long time and part of those key important stories about the one God and revelations of God to humanity.

So by taking a pilgrimage to that site, Muslims are influenced by that belief in one God that has been had there before.

So now we're gonna hear from Iqbal about how a belief in Tawhid influences him.

Aisha asks him, "How does a belief in Tawhid influence you, Iqbal?" Well, Iqbal says, "A belief in Tawhid influences so much of my life.

I believe that God is complete and unique, which means I do not worship any other God.

I want to know more about God and how to live in the right way.

So I'll read the Qur'an and learn more about God's prophets." So here we've got Iqbal being influenced in his actions to not worship any other God and also his actions to read the Qur'an because of his belief in that one God.

And now Fatemeh's gonna tell us about how a belief in Tawhid can influence her too.

Jacob asks, "How does a belief in Tawhid influence you, Fatemeh?" Fatemeh says, "A belief in Tawhid influences me to behave in a way that respects all of God's creation.

God was the mighty creator who brought everything into being and we owe everything to God.

This means I want to respect the earth and care for others.

When I see injustice in the world, my belief in Tawhid influences me to want to help." So this is some actions that Fatemeh has in caring for the earth and caring for other people because she believes that we've all come from that original source that is God and that is the mighty creator that brought all of life and all of creation into being.

Nadia, Iqbal, Fatemeh, and Ahmed have all shown us there's often more than one way that a belief can influence believers.

And what we're going to do together now is give one way that a belief in Tawhid might influence a Muslim.

For example, only worshipping one God.

That's an influence, an action that is influenced because of a belief in Tawhid.

So over to you then, give one way that a belief in Tawhid might influence a Muslim.

Pause the video and have a go and we'll see what you've done in a moment.

Well done, learning about God through the prophets and revelations sent.

So time for another practise task to see what we've learned.

As we've seen in the lesson, Tawhid is a really important belief in Islam and we saw how it was important for Ahmed, Nadia, Iqbal, and Fatemeh.

For each influence they've set in the table below, you are going to add an explanation.

So when you have an explanation, you are building on the point that you've made.

It could be "This means that," or here we've got "This is because" as suggested phrases for you.

So let's see what influence each of them gave.

Ahmed has said, "Tawhid influenced my parents to say the words of the Shahadah to me." Nadia says, "Tawhid influences me to not want to commit shirk." Iqbal says, "Tawhid influences me to read the Qur'an and learn about God's prophets." And Fatemeh says, "Tawhid influences me to care about the world and other people facing hard times." So for each of them, think about why Tawhid has influenced them in that way.

To give the explanation, you're going to add something to each box.

You might use the phrase, "This is because." Pause the video, off you go and we'll see what you've done In a minute.

Well done, we've got lots of different ways that Tawhid can influence Muslims. I asked you to look at the influences that Ahmed, Nadia, Iqbal, Fatemeh gave for how Tawhid is influencing their life.

And you need to explain why or how.

And I gave you the starting sentence, "This is because," and your answers might look something like this.

Ahmed said, "Tawhid influenced my parents to say the words of the Shahadah to me.

This is because they wanted me to know there is only one God from day one." Nadia, "Tawhid influences me to not want to commit shirk.

And this is because shirk is a great sin when someone worships something other than God." Iqbal, "Tawhid influences me to read the Qur'an and learn about God's prophets.

And this is because I can learn more about the one God through the revelations given." And Fatemeh, "Tawhid influences me to care about the world and other people facing hard times.

This is because there is one God who created everything.

So we're all part of one creation and should care for each other." So we can see from this, there's not just one way that a belief in one God can influence Muslims. So let's summarise everything we've learned today.

Tawhid.

Tawhid is a belief in the oneness and uniqueness of God.

God is not incomplete or in separate parts and has not reproduced and had children Worshipping anything other than God is a sin of shirk.

Beliefs about Tawhid are supported by various sources, including the Qur'an and Shahadah.

And a belief in Tawhid is important to Muslims and can influence them in many aspects of life.

So right on for today's work, and I'll see you again soon.